Captain who???

As you may have noticed, there’s a new term in the Poetry Postcard Fest glossary for 2024: List Captain.

Like many grassroots organizations that grow organically, the annual Fest would probably not happen without the hands-on attention of one person. Of course, that’s co-founder and postcard wrangler extraordinaire Paul Nelson.

Over the last few years, Paul has shared some planning and brainstorming activity with a committee of experienced postcarders, but he was still doing the laborious clerical work. For each list of 32 names, every correction has to be recorded and distributed, which sometimes involved four, five, six, or more iterations of a single group list before the information was confirmed.

That seemed like an unreasonable burden, subject to frustrating delays and inevitable errors, so this year we’re trying out a new system: List Captains. Paul Nelson is, of course, one, with the list duties shared by captains Verónica Martinez (Cascadia Poetics Lab Administrative Assistant), Sally Hedges-Blanquez, Ina Roy-Faderman, Zach Charles, Margaret Lee, and me, Judy Kleinberg. Interestingly, we are mostly NOT in the group(s) we are captaining.

The idea is that each of us serves as a communication hub for the people on our list(s). We solicit corrections, make sure they are forwarded for inclusion in the year’s roster of participants, distribute lists (on or about July 4), answer questions, and generally make ourselves available to the group and the fest.

This is a work in progress. We don’t have all the answers and we don’t all have the same time or knowledge or skills. But we’re hopeful that this makes life easier for Paul and maybe, eventually, a little less confusing for participants. We already have ideas about how it can work better next year.

Meanwhile, if you have questions, ask your list captain!

And have a wonderful 2024 Poetry Postcard Fest!